Dyslexia - A Learning Disorder

Dyslexia is a disorder that affects a child's ability to read or write. some dyslexics show less electrical activation in parts of the left hemisphere of brain that is involved in reading. Research has proved gene-environment interactions to be involved in this reading disability. In surface dyslexia, words whose pronunciations are "regular", (as for example "mint")are read more accurately than words with an "irregular" pronunciation (such as "colonel"). In phonological dyslexia, the sufferer can read familiar words, but has difficulty reading new words. Pure dyslexia is due to difficulty in recognizing written sequence of letters. It is not accompanied by other language related problems. In neglect dyslexia, some letters are neglected during reading, most of the while it is the letters at the beginning or on left side of words.

Dyslexia adversely affects reading and writing skills of a child

Dyslexia - a learning disability

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Signs Of Dyslexia

Various signs of dyslexia seen in children include the following :

Confusion between letters that look similar, but are reversals of each other, as for example "d" and "b", or "u" can be confused for "n".

Reversing the words when reading them, such as "rat" for "tar", or "won" for "now".

Tendency to transpose words, as for example "left"-"felt".

Tendency towards elisions, like reading "cat" for "cart".

Reading a word correctly at one place, and then reading it wrong at another place on the same page.

Confusion between similar sounding words or terms with similar spellings, such as "form" and "from".

Reading very slowly and hesitantly word by word, or leaving out whole chunks.

Difficulty in remembering numbers and letters in sequence.

Poor writing skills.

Unusual resistance towards reading aloud.

Relying on mugging up or memorizing the text without understanding it.

Tests to diagnose dyslexia

Dyslexia is a common condition. According to the British Dyslexia Association, every 4 out of 100 people have mild to moderate dyslexic tendency. A qualified child psychiatrist would test a child for dyslexia in the following areas :